How to Paint Without Painter’s Tape

I did not use painter’s tape for anything I painted in our house and I’ve painted all of our 3 floors, including the stairwells between them, and 3 accent walls. Pulling back painter’s tape to find that paint had bled through terrified me. Painting is hard work, and having to redo it when you think you’re done is not something I wanted to experience. Not to mention, taping everything is incredibly time consuming. I learned how to paint without painter’s tape and you can too!

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In each room I followed this plan of attack once each room was ready to paint:

1. paint trim
2. cut in & roll ceiling
3. paint walls (main color)
4. any accent walls

During all stages, any obvious drips or globs I wiped up to avoid having any texture the drips made show through the wall paint. Dripping ceiling paint onto the wall could cause the drip texture of that dried paint to be visible when painted over. Even if the color won’t show through, the texture will. Of course there will be a few mistakes here and there. A wet paper towel is good for wiping up those mistakes. Just get the paint while it’s still wet. Have a wet paper towel (or 2) ready and nearby before you start painting.

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Step 1: Painting Trim

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The left and right walls haven’t been painted yet. Ceiling and trim paint overlap onto the walls.

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In every room I painted the trim first, that way if I messed up and got paint on the walls, my mistakes would be painted over when I painted the walls. In fact, I intentionally painted trim paint into the corner where the trim meets the wall. This ensured when I painted the wall with a new color that none of the old wall color would show through where the trim and wall meet.

I painted the trim solely with an angled sash brush getting paint straight out of the can. The more trim I painted, the better I got at my precision with a brush. A little practice and patience, and you’ll have skills! Sarah from the Ugly Duckling House has a nice tutorial on this. Also painting trim doesn’t seem like physically demanding work, but it’s a lot of sitting and leaning to get a good angle. I was sore after. But only on one side. Take breaks and stretch a lot.

Upstairs we have carpet, which can be a pain to paint trim around because the fibers stick up onto the trim. I wedged cardboard under the trim to press the carpet down. But full disclosure: I didn’t care about getting paint on our carpet because it was getting replaced a few weeks after I painted. (If you’re interested in that, read about our experiences with Empire.) You can use cardboard or a putty knife to help you wedge a drop cloth or flat trash bags (or just leave the cardboard tucked in) under your trim. That will protect your carpet and help keep fibers from getting in your wet paint.

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On our main floor we have hardwood. By that point, I had practiced painting enough that I had control over the brush and could paint trim without painting the quarter round.

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Step 2: Ceilings

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The ceilings, I approached with an overlap mentality just like the trim. For the ceilings, I cut in with a sash brush, making sure to get ceiling paint on the walls too. Once again, getting ceiling paint into the corner where the wall and ceiling meet ensures there isn’t a gap in coverage between the new ceiling paint and the new wall paint.

This paint can lid is very helpful for pouring paint into a roller tray as it keeps paint from getting into the lip around the rim that the lid fits into. It also prevents the top layer of paint in the can from drying if you’re working over several hours or a day or two. Another wet paper towel can be helpful here for paint drips on the spout. I’ve used this lid for years and it cleans up well with warm water, and any dried paint on it peels right off.

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Step 3: Walls

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Walls are by far the most satisfying part of painting, but they can also be the most nerve wracking. There’s an instant gratification of the color you’ve chosen coming to life. But the bolder the color, the more obvious mistakes and wonky lines will be. That’s where a paint edger comes in handy. I used an edger for the top and bottom of every wall. The paint edger is your secret weapon to paint without painter’s tape.

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I used my trusty sash brush to brush paint onto the edger. I experimented with how much paint to brush on, starting with less paint and working my way up. You want full coverage, but if you have too much paint on the edger pad it will squish out and leave globs. It’s better to have too little paint on the edger than to have too much. This one takes a pass or two to get down. Sliding the edger along the ceiling or along the trim makes the cutting in line for you. I typically get about 2 feet of coverage from each pass with the edger before it needs more paint.

The edger itself cleans up very nicely. The edger pads do clean up for a time or two. However, if you have a long day of painting, the edges of the edger pad do start to get dried paint that is difficult to wash away. If you have lots of painting to do some additional edger pads might be nice to have on hand.

What not to do: I watched a video online about dabbing the edger into the paint and forcing excess off onto the paint tray like you would a roller. That caused paint to end up on the wheels, that ended up on the ceiling or trim.

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We’ll get to accent walls in a minute. But these show using the edger to outline a space before rolling it.

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After outlining a section with the edger at the top, I rolled paint from top to bottom. As I neared the bottom, I used the edger along the trim. The texture of the edger pad is different than the texture the roller. Sometimes the edger didn’t achieve the coverage I wanted and left things streaky (mainly if I did get enough paint on the edger pads). For both problems I used the brush to even things out. Painting over the edger work with the brush was still easier and more efficient than cutting in by hand. And it gave me crisp lines.

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MORE PAINT PROJECT TIPS: Spray Painting Hardware | Painting Kitchen Cabinets | The Best Painting Tools

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Step 4: Accent Walls

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I painted accent walls very much the same as all the other walls, with a few minor changes. Not only did I use the edger on the top and bottom of accent walls, but on the sides as well. I made sure when I painted the rest of the wall, that I overlapped some of the main color on what would be the accent wall. That way when I painted with the accent paint, there wouldn’t be any gaps of the original wall color showing through. You could overlap the accent color onto the main walls instead, but for me my accent colors were darker and would be harder to cover with the main paint color.

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But which paint to use?

All of the paint we bought was Sherwin Williams SuperPaint. We bought all of our paint when it was on a 40% off sale. They run sales on occasion and that’s a great time to stock up!

Not all of the colors we chose are Sherwin Williams colors though. You can have any brand paint color made up at any paint store you’d like. It took me 3 trips to the paint store and a few sample cans before I decided upon the light gray that is the majority of our house. I’ve linked them below in case there was anything that caught your eye.

• light gray for majority of our house: Sherwin Williams Olympus White
• green for accent wall: Behr Green Energy
• slate gray for accent wall: Sherwin Williams Web Gray
• navy for accent wall: Behr Infinite Deep Sea

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What do you want to paint without painter’s tape?

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